Original researchEvaluation of diabetes awareness among general population of Bahawalpur, Pakistan

- This was the first study of its kind performed in desert area of Punjab, Pakistan.
- We observed adequate awareness of diabetes among majority of the study participants.
- We found female participants as more aware of diabetes than males.
- We observed inadequate awareness among participants of age <20 and >50 years.
- We observed lack of awareness among illiterate and poor participants.

AimsTo evaluate diabetes awareness among general population of Bahawalpur, Pakistan.MethodsA questionnaire based descriptive cross sectional study was performed during 2014. Descriptive and inferential statistics were applied using the IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 20.ResultsTotal 383 respondents participated in this study giving a response rate of about 88%. Mean age of the participants was 33 ± 13.3 years and the majority of the participants were females (50.4%). Mean scores of the participants were 20.77 ± 6.65 out of 34 and only one participant scored 34/34 marks. Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U test revealed that females scored significantly higher diabetes awareness score than males (p < 0.05). Moreover, urban residential status, better education and higher socioeconomic status were significantly associated with higher diabetes awareness.ConclusionsMajority of our study population had adequate awareness regarding diabetes. However, lack of awareness was observed among illiterate, poor and rural participants that indicated the immediate need of diabetes awareness programs for these participants.